Meniscus Injury

What is a Meniscus Injury?

The meniscus or knee cartilage lies within the knee joint surfaces. The medial & lateral meniscus are horseshoe-shaped structures composed of fibrocartilage. The meniscus on the inside of the knee is known as the medial meniscus and the lateral meniscus lies on the outer side. The meniscus acts to cushion forces by acting as a shock absorber & by spreading the weight more evenly over the articular cartilage on the surface of the bones. The amount of force transferred through the cartilage increases exponentially as the speed of movement increases. They also aid in lubrication & nutrition of the joint and act to reduce joint friction.

The medial meniscus is more prone to injury than the lateral meniscus. The inner two thirds of the meniscus has no blood supply & therefore it is particularly challenging in terms of healing capacity.

When people talk about having a cartilage injury they are generally referring to a meniscus tear within the knee.

Meniscus Injury. Ross Allen is a former Ireland rugby International & County Football Player.

Physiotherapy Treatment for Meniscus Injury

Physiotherapy interventions are the primary management tool for small meniscal tears and for chronic degenerative meniscus tears that do not impede greatly upon daily function. Management options include physiotherapy interventions for strength, joint control and range of motion allied with activity modification to manage symptoms & inhibit progression. In cases where the shock absorption capacity at the knee has been diminished due to meniscus injury, strength training can decrease the pressure on the joint by providing dynamic stability to the knee joint. Surgical options include a meniscal repair or meniscectomy where part of the meniscus is removed.

As mentioned, the outer third of the meniscus has a blood supply and therefore is much more open to healing than the inner two thirds which has no blood supply. An improvement in symptoms should be expected within twelve weeks or surgery may be indicated. Surgery will normally be performed arthroscopically, meaning by use of a tiny camera to either remove the torn fragment or to repair (stitch) the tear if it is near the periphery. Even in cases where surgery is necessary, a physiotherapy intervention is vital to optimise strength and accelerate recovery post-surgery. Even when a meniscal tear is diagnosed, in the absence of symptoms such as joint locking, giving way or recurring swelling the latest approach is to try to avoid surgical intervention.

The goal of physiotherapy treatment is to:

Decrease pain & swelling

Increase range of motion

Strengthen the affected knee

Improve strength & control at the hip & trunk

Improve proprioception & balance of the lower limb

Prevent further deterioration

Physiotherapy versus Surgery for Knee Pain Caused by a Meniscus Tear

Katz et al. (2013):

In a large study following 351 people with meniscus tears published in the New England Journal of Medicine it was demonstrated that those suffering from knee arthritis or meniscal tears achieved comparable results from physiotherapy & from surgical intervention. Improvements were compared between the surgery and physiotherapy groups at six and twelve months.

After six months, both groups experienced similar & substantial improvements in pain & function. Only a small number of people chose to undergo surgery from the physiotherapy group. In those in the physiotherapy group who had shown improvement at six months there was a continued improvement in symptoms at the twelve month mark.

Kies et al. (2016):

This study included 140 adults who had knee pain due to a degenerative meniscal tear. The participants were randomly assigned to have either arthroscopic surgery followed by daily exercises at home to reduce swelling and regain motion or to work with a physiotherapist on neuromuscular and rehabilitation exercises 2-3 times a week for 12 weeks.

Periodic testing for the next two years showed improvement in both groups. Muscle strength had improved more, on average, in the physical therapy group at the three-month checkup, but at the final two-year checkup, there was essentially no difference between the surgery and therapy groups, including in pain, function, and quality of life. The authors reported that 19 percent of the physiotherapy group opted to have surgery at some point but had achieved “no additional benefit” by the end of the study.

Surgery for Meniscus Tear is Not Advised for Middle Aged & Older

Roughly 3 in every 4 patients undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery for meniscus tear, cartilage lesions or knee arthritis are 35 or older. Recent research for basic knee procedures involving a meniscal repair or “cleaning out the knee” has raised some serious questions regarding its effectiveness. The British Medical Journal cites “scandalously poor”evidence supporting the use of common orthopaedic procedures such as knee arthroscopies.

The authors discuss the randomized trials (the top ranking forms of research) investigating the effect of debridement and/or arthroscopic partial meniscectomy to date. They state that “all but 1 of these 9 trials of arthroscopic surgery in middle-aged or older people with persistent knee pain failed to show any added benefit of interventions arthroscopic surgery over a variety of control treatments.”

The original randomised controlled trial analysing the effect of knee arthroscopic surgery showed that a fake placebo surgery produced the same results as real knee surgery (Moseley et al. 2002)

The latest paper to address the issue of knee arthroscopy in middle-aged and older patients is entitles, “Routine knee arthroscopic surgery for the painful knee in middle-aged and old patients-time to abandon ship”. The title is a give away of the current state of the research on this topic.

Some individuals are under the misconception that having surgery will decrease the risk of arthritis. The research shows that the opposite is in fact true and that your risk of needing a knee replacement increases if you have surgery to remove a torn piece of cartilage.

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